Putin "wins" another term as president in "election"

by Alyssa Dailey - Editor-In-Cheif

Tue, Mar 27th 2018 09:10 pm

Like a good “democratic” country where political officials are elected by the “people,” Russia held its presidential election earlier this month. The results were in on Monday, March 19 and surprise, surprise, Putin won by a landslide, according to Vox. What this means is that the shirtless, bear-riding hyper-masculine devil-in-disguise will now be in charge of the country until 2024. It’s no secret that Putin’s pick for United States President 45 in the 2016 election was able to win, so why would he not win his own election?

Putin has been the on and off (but mostly on) political face of Russia since 1999. I mean, I was born in 1997 and am turning 21 this year. Besides the fact that he’s been in office for almost as long as I have been on Earth, it seems as though the “people” of Russia have not gotten enough of his conservative, aggressive tactics. He was able to win 75 percent of the vote even though there were eight candidates in all.

Honestly, I’m going to make it completely clear right here and now that I think Putin and his cohorts in the Kremlin totally rigged this election and that is the perspective I’m writing this from. I mean, everyone knows about his tendency to resort to threatening people under his breath if they dare to go against him as well as sicking the KGB on people like these trained assassins are his own personal lap dogs. People also solidly predicted that he’d win this election like the day after the last election in 2012.

It’s not only interesting that Putin has been able to stay in favor because he’s been in the running for so long, but also because he is known for not giving two sh***, about anyone who crosses him or “Mother Russia.” If you want to go against him, the chance that you’ll magically turn up at the bottom of the nearest river having been killed by a deadly nerve agent created by government-funded scientists is super likely.

As for the Trump and Putin bromance … as of Thursday, March 15, Donald Trump has actually joined the UK and other allies in accusing Moscow of using that whole toxic nerve agent on an ex-Russian spy and his daughter. The motives behind Trump doing this are hazy. I mean, he probably was like, “ah, that Robert Mueller, he’s getting closer to finding me out. I better make it seem like I don’t favor Russia.”

The U.S. Treasury Department has finally placed sanctions on more than 20 Russian individuals and organizations as punishment for meddling with the 2016 election that got Mr. Trump elected, according to Vox.

Looking at the Russian election, there was one interesting candidate running against Trump that caught my eye. Her, yes that’s right, her name was Ksenia Sobchak. Although she is the daughter of Putin’s political mentor, she presented a liberal programme. For the LGBTQ community and many other minority groups in Russia, she might’ve been the one to provide the opportunity for lasting progressive change in Russia.

I would love to meet this woman because for her to run for office in a country that has, for so long, been under the Putin regime and his well-known problematic views for so long takes a lot of courage. Putin has laid down comments along the lines of “there is no discrimination against gay people in Russia, but I am not comfortable showering with a gay man,” and “I don’t have bad days, I’m not a woman.”

To make my point clear, am I surprised that Putin won by a hell-of-a lot of votes? Absolutely not. Am I happy about it? Absolutely not. Do I think it’s the best move for Russia and every Russian citizen? Absolutely not. The way the world is working right now, we are setting ourselves up for some major upheaval.

We’re seeing it already in the U.S. and there have been protests in Russia even though they are almost always automatically shut down. Either way, people are demanding change and sooner or later, those in power are going to have no choice but to listen.